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   XPost: rec.aviation.military   
   From: keithnospam@demon.co.uk   
      
   deemsbill@aol.com wrote:   
   > On May 11, 4:17 pm, "Keith Willshaw"  wrote:   
   >> Keith Willshaw wrote:   
   >>> The Starmaker wrote:   
   >>>> deemsb...@aol.com wrote:   
   >>   
   >>>>> Since 1776? Well under one million.   
   >>   
   >>>> I don't understand...   
   >>>> there was a hundred million people in China in 1776, why   
   >>>> couldn't there be a hundred million people in America in 1776?   
   >>   
   >>> Because China was a long established Agrarian society   
   >>> that had sophisticated farming techniques, had excellent   
   >>> metallurgical skills and a stable well ordered society.   
   >>   
   >>> Pre Columbian North America was largely populated by   
   >>> nomadic hunter gatherers who were living in the neolithic   
   >>> had almost no domesticated animals.   
   >>   
   >>> Only in Central and South America were there the   
   >>   
   >> To continue   
   >>   
   >> Only in Central and South America were there the situations similar   
   >> but even there the Aztec, Maya and Inca were still in the stone age.   
   >   
   >      Not in the sense that we think of stone age. They were far from   
   > primitive. Both worked metals with great skill.....they just used   
   > metals for decoration rather than weapons and tools. The question   
   > being "why"?   
   >   
      
   This is also true of the neolithic era in Europe and the middle east.   
    Stone and bone  artefacts were incredibly sophisticated and a well   
   made stone axe is almost as useful as a bronze tool. It was only the   
   discovery of the harder iron that replaced stone edged tools. Copper   
   tools seem to have been largely ritual objects. Bronze was a   
   better weapons technology but most ordinary folk in the   
   bronze age still used stone.   
      
   The problem seems to be that in the new world they never learned   
   the critical lesson that if you add the right amount of tin to copper you   
   get a much more useful material.   
      
   >     The same goes for the wheel. They knew about the   
   > wheel.....examples have been found on toys. They had no decent draft   
   > animals and much of their terrain was either swamp or vertical but   
   > surely man-pulled carts would've been useful in their towns and   
   > cities. They never even used wheels to grind grain. Another "why"?   
   >   
   >    They built massive structures. They built extensive road networks.   
   > They built countless terraces and irrigation systems. They had indoor   
   > plumbing in some cities. They genetically engineered corn/maize. They   
   > had the number zero...probably before the Old World. They had writing   
   > systems. IOW, they were far from what we think of when we hear "stone   
   > aged".   
      
   It depends on what you think stone age means. The pyramid builders   
   of Egypt used largely stone tools with bronze being used for weapons   
   and ritual purposes.   
      
   The people of stone age Egypt made boats, ground corn, wove linen and   
   carpets, had jewels and per¬fumes, barbers and domesticated animals   
   music and the visual arts. They produced rather fine pottery figures   
   of mourning women, animals, men, and ge¬ometrical designs.   
      
   The key though is agriculture. You need a dependable food source   
   and the surplus that farming produces to support large static   
   populations.   
      
   Keith   
      
   Keith   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)